Kids at Heart

Happy 3rd Birthday, Caleb!

2012-02-07T07:41:00.002-06:00

Caleb is 3!!!!!!!!!!!!

Three years ago we got the most wonderful gift - becoming parents to the greatest boy we could ever imagine. We always knew Caleb was special. Don't all parents think that about their kids? It's true. Every kid is special. But we get the privilege of raising Caleb and seeing him grow up. We get a front row seat to see his cute personality, gifts and talents, and how wonderfully God created him. He's very compassionate, nurturing with Nathan (sometimes), and very sensitive to others' feelings. And it's nothing we've done. He's just that way. He fills our lives with joy, and makes us smile every night after we tuck him in and talk about all the funny or cute things he did that day.

Caleb loves to read, sing, play outside, help me with dishes, help me sort socks, and help Daddy with anything. He loves going to see friends. He just started to sleep with his bear at bedtime. He wakes up happy in the morning, but still wakes up crying after almost every nap. He's learning how to share with Nathan, and also how to manipulate Nathan into playing with something else so he can play with the thing that he wants. He likes routine. It's hard to explain his delightful personality in words. Sometimes David and I talk about how you can't describe how precious he is, you just have to experience it. I can't convey that cute face he made the other day, or how it felt when he kissed my cheek and hugged my neck. I can write down the things he says, but not the exact way he says it.

I can't believe how much I've forgotten already in these last three years. It's really hard to remember Caleb as an infant. And even when I look at pictures, it's hard to remember holding him and rocking him when he was like that. Parenting is full of difficult phases, and many times parents look forward to the next phase of growing up. But lately, I'm very thankful for "right now." Because I know it'll be gone before I know it! Man, my boys getting older sure makes me sappy!!!! :)

We successfully navigated through the "terrible twos." While, I'm sure he is on the more compliant side of the spectrum, we still had lots of battles. I'm going to let him know that now that he is three, he has to go easy on me...I only have 9 more months until Nathan turns two!

Here are some pics from his birthday party day. :)

Caleb helped Daddy make birthday pancakes for breakfast.

Daddy made one in the shape of a 3 for Caleb!

Nathan liked them too.

Opening presents.

Thomas stuff - always a hit!

This might sound kind of lame, but one of the presents we gave Caleb was our old digital camera. It was David's from college. The display screen on the back is so small. But it still works, and he loves it! He took pictures of everything. I'm thinking of occasionally doing some blog posts of Caleb's journeys documented with his pictures. He has a great picture-taking stance that cracks us up.

He picked a Cars theme again. :)

He loved everyone singing to him.

He actually blew out all the candles! with 3+ tries :)

Family pic.

Mmmm.

Taking more pictures.

Riding his new bike the next day.

Playing with his new 3D puzzle. Hehe. I'm pretty sure the makers of these glasses could have made them cooler, but they wanted to give parents a good laugh. :)

My Would-be Tweets

2012-01-20T21:36:00.003-06:00

I'm not on Twitter. And even though I'm on Facebook, I don't update my status everyday with things going on. But I do text David often throughout the day to tell him how things are going or what we're doing. I was scanning through some old texts and laughing. I thought, these could probably be my tweets...if anyone besides David cared to read them. Although, I'm not sure what my tweets would really be because when you know other people are reading them, it changes things. So here are a few from the last few weeks. I just picked random ones, mostly funny ones about the kids. (We also text boring logistical stuff and sweet lovey things, but I didn't think you would care to see those.)

(About raking leaves in the yard): I raked into a few big piles for you. They'll probably all be blown away before to tomorrow though. Or by Caleb "raking" them with his hockey stick.

(The next morning after going to bed super late after a party. We had leftover dessert.): I've given up. I already feel like crap. Lemon layers for breakfast.

(After leaving Barnes and Noble): Caleb was so good in the store. He loves books. He got a Thomas the Train Valentine's book. Nathan, on the other hand, pulls all of the books off the shelves. It'll be fun to go to places like this in a year or so when Nathan has a longer attention span.

I think Caleb's in a pancake daze - he ate 4!

Oh my goodness! Nathan just looked at the cow and said, "cah moo moo."

(After a huge storm) I just trudged through some water and fetched our trash can from around the corner.

Snarf. I don't think the spaghetti pie turned out good. The noodles are overcooked and mushy. :( (Actually, it was overcooked, but still ok enough to eat.)

I just taught Nathan how to say "please" in sign language. He's so cute!

Hahahaha! Modern Family. (I texted this to David while I was watching it and he was at church. Our new favorite show.)

Caleb was awake when I went to get him this morning. He was smiling. I said, "What are you doing?" He said, "I'm laying in a nest." And sure enough, his blankies were circled in a nest and he was laying in the middle.

This morning Caleb was eating his "en-ga-lish" muffin, and he said, "this is so huger!" because one side was bigger than the other. :)

(We were all super sick last week. And I was the worst this day.) Oh my gosh. Everyone is miserable here. Going on a wagon ride to hopefully break up the crying. Just wish someone could pull me too.

Nathan just had the worst. poop. ever. Black blueberry poop. Looked like he was wearing black underwear. And there were so many particles, I couldn't even get them all off with the 200 wipes I used.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hehehe. Sorry to leave that as my last one and give you that lovely visual image. :)

More funnies!

2012-01-05T19:35:00.000-06:00

Wow, I don't think I've ever had this many posts in a row before. But they boys have been doing so many cute things lately.

Funny things Caleb has said:

Caleb has read Charlie Brown's Christmas a ton this season. He had a book with audio buttons on it, and he loved it! Then David got a free Charlie Brown Christmas phone app, where you can manipulate the characters and flip the pages. So yesterday, out of the blue, he sang the entire first verse of Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and ended with "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!" Then he came over to me and said, "My own dog's gone commercial. I just don't understand it." hahaha!

He told Nathan that he was "not very happy" that he was touching the tv plug, and that Nathan needed to "go over here ad sit next to the wall."

He wanted me to go up in the playroom with him, but I asked if he would clean the books up downstairs first. He said he couldn't. I told him that I would finish cleaning the dishes, and he could clean up the books, and then we could go up together once it was all clean. So he started cleaning up and said in the most exuberant voice, "Mommy, are you so very happy??!!"

In our one of our books, he called the chihuahua and "chi-wow-wow." hehe. And he knew it was funny!

And here is a short Nathan video. He loves to roar when I ask him what the animals say. He's also added the words book, baby, and blueberry (bu-ber) to his vocabulary.

New trick for bedtime and a video

2012-01-03T15:04:00.000-06:00

I just thought I'd pass along a new trick that has worked for us with Caleb. Recently, when we would tell him it's time for a nap or bed, he'd flop like a wet noodle on the floor and say, "I don't want to go to bed." :( Sad. He eventually would, but I was tired of the coaxing and whining. So now I set our microwave timer (or my phone if we are upstairs) and tell him, "Caleb, when you hear the beep, it's time to go to bed." And it's truly magical. When hears it, he hops up and gets ready to go! And it doesn't matter if I set it for 10 minutes or 30 minutes away. It works. I can't guarantee it will work for everyone, but if you're dealing with the same thing as us, you might as well give it a try! :)

And here is a video from our library time. After all the songs and the story, they let the kids run under the parachute. They love it! Nathan even gets in there with the big kids! He's the one crawling on the ground with the red sleeves, and Caleb is next to him with the olive green sweatshirt and blue pants.

Family Portraits

2012-01-02T22:17:00.000-06:00

We went again with both families to get studio portraits. We didn't have that great of success this year. When we went with David's family, we had to wait an hour and a half (which with two kids around dinner time seems like an eternity), so we rushed the session and didn't have that many poses to choose from. With my family, we didn't get a great photographer. Usually they have a person getting the kids to smile and laugh, but they didn't until we asked her to try for the last picture (the one we bought). And the photographer put us in weird poses. Oh well. We still enjoy getting them done every year to see the family change...and because they are inexpensive! This year we added my sister's fiance to the pictures.

Here are last years pictures.

Here are the ones from this year.

Nathan didn't like me walking away and leaving him there to take the picture. But we ended up liking the picture anyway! It captures what real life is like most of the time right now. He cries like this whenever I leave the room or put him down to do something.

New videos

2011-12-31T17:56:00.001-06:00

Before I get to the videos, I have to mention that Caleb has been saying the funniest things lately. It's hard to remember them all. But one that comes to mind is when he got a scrape on his chin the other day from going down the slide head-first. When it healed, the next day he had a rough scab on it. So we see him feeling the scab on his chin, and he says really sincerely, "I have a beard!" ha! Over and over again. "Dad, I have a beard like you." It was seriously the cutest thing. He really thought he had some stubble just like Daddy!

I love this video. It makes me so happy when I see them having fun together. They had fun playing with Caleb's bed rail. Caleb says, "We're going on a ride, Nathan!"

I left the boys playing on the swings while I went in to make lunch. When I came back out, this is what I found. Nathan was actually loving it, but he started fussing when he saw me.

The boys got a little car from my parents for Christmas. They love it! It's got a bottom to it so Nathan doesn't fall through, but you can take it out if Caleb wants to ride and push himself. Here Daddy is giving Caleb a ride.

(David) "Officially, we were driving like Doc Hudson drives." :)

Here Caleb is giving Nathan a ride. He enjoys it almost as much as being in the car himself!

My Nathan

2011-12-31T14:08:00.001-06:00

Here are some updates and random thoughts about Nathan. He just turned 14 months.

He does this face I call his "silly scrunchy face smile." It cracks me up. It's usually followed up by his forced laugh. Every time I see him do it, I want to eat him up. Literally. Just take a bite out of his cuteness.

He's starting to talk more. He says ball, car, papa, mama, Boomer (my parents dog - sounds like moomer), moon, ah-me (when he wants something), hi, ca-car (for cracker), more (with the sign language), all done (with the sign), animals (ah-ma-ma)...and probably a few more, but that's all I can think of for now.

He loves animals. He had a blast at the zoo, loves my parents' dog, and always has to pet our neighborhood kitties.

He's a momma's boy. He wants me more than anyone else. He's getting much better at going to other though. He used to cry if anyone took him away from me. He gives the best kisses and hugs and snuggles.

We call him "the destroyer" because Caleb likes to line things up neat, and Nathan likes to tear everything down. If toys are on a table or ledge, he throws each one off one by one. He does like putting things in and out of containers though.

He walks a little, but it isn't his primary mode of transportation yet. He's got a little dare-devil in him. Just today he climbed up on the couch, stood up, and jumped off onto David. Luckily David was kind of aware of it, and caught him with one arm. He's been really easy to trust on the stairs. I feel like Caleb was like 2 years old before I felt comfortable with him going up and down, but Nathan is a pro. Maybe the carpeted stairs help too.

Going for a winter walk around the neighborhood.

Getting into things. :)

At the zoo.

He's my eater. He'll eat anything. And if he sees you eating something, he'll beg for some....even if he just had a huge meal. I love that wide open mouth!

I loooove his smell, especially after his nap. It's this wonderful sweet, warm breath smell, and the smell of freshly cleaned blankies that he snuggles with. I wish I could bottle it up and smell it all the time. It makes me sad that I'll probably forget that smell one day.

Big boy Caleb

2011-12-23T14:03:00.000-06:00

Caleb turned into a big boy right in front of our eyes. Over the last month, he has moved into a big boy bed, said goodbye to his pacifier, and has been potty trained! Where did my little boy go??

So proud of his undies!

We took up the living room rug in case there were accidents.

His sticker chart for going potty. Wow, that was like the magic motivation. He loved it!

New York trip

2011-12-07T23:35:00.002-06:00

David and I got to take a little vacation - 2 1/2 days - to New York recently. We had so much fun! It was the perfect weather - about 50 degrees during the day, and sunny. I had so many things on our to-do list, and we only got to do about half of them! Hopefully we'll go back again to do some of the other stuff. But here is what we did get around to doing:

Day 1: We arrived in New Jersey about 2:30. Then we took a train over to New York. The idea of trying not to look like tourists quickly went out the window while trying to figure out the train and subway system. Oh, and getting to New York and saying, "Whoa! Look how tall these buildings are!" And "Look! New York pizza!" And "Whoa! Is that a big giant button?!" make your non-local status even more obvious. *cough*David! hehe. Love you!

Our hotel room was really nice! Modern and updated, had turn-down service, and even had hot apple cider in the lobby every evening after getting in from the cold. Really thankful it was all free from David's traveling points!

Getting ready for dinner and our Broadway play.

We went to Becco, a nice Italian restaurant I read good reviews about. It was in the theater district, and seemed like it would be really good food for a pretty reasonable price. I like fancy restaurants, but sometimes I feel out of place if it is too fancy, and David doesn't like if the meal is the size of silver dollar. So this was perfect. Take a look at this chicken parmesan! David couldn't even eat half of it!

The restaurant is owned by Lidia Bastianich - the PBS Italian cooking show lady that we sometimes watch. We started with Caesar salads, and we had a pasta trio side dish to share that which was super yum. I got mashed potatoes with pulled pork, some greens and sliced apples on top. Whoa. That was delish. And we got cheesecake to split for dessert. We even met a waiter there who was an Aggie! :)

Then we went to see Wicked! It was really great. David even liked it - which is saying a lot, because he's not a big fan of musicals. But he appreciates the live productions over the movie musicals. I'm so glad we picked this one. Great performances, story and music.

Day 2: We spent most of our time around Rockefeller Center. There is a lot to do around there!

We went to stand outside for the Today Show taping early in the morning. We didn't get there early enough for a good spot to get on tv though. But we did get to see the whole gang come out a couple times to talk, and we saw them interview Michael Phelps and other US swim team people. I don't think they're in this picture. I think I took of video of that instead. We definitely didn't feel like tourists in this group. There were some c-razy people.

While we were under Rockefeller Tower, we saw them setting up for the tree lighting concert. They put the stage on the ice rink...if you can even tell what this picture is.

Walking around the plaza, we took a picture before the tree was lit up.

We went on the NBC Studio Tour. But no pictures allowed.

Then we went to the Top of the Rock (top of Rockefeller Tower). We decided to do that instead of the Empire State building because we were already there, and we could get a picture with the Empire State building in the background. It was really pretty up there.

Radio City

Then, one of the coolest parts of the trip - Jimmy Fallon taping tickets! Woohoo! He's hilarious. His interviews are so funny. And Thank You Notes, or #latenight hashtags anyone? Actually, I hardly ever watch his show because it's on way too late. We got standby tickets, and weren't really expecting to get in, but we made it! The show taping was really fun to be a part of. And we got to be on the band bench. When the musical guest performs at the end of the show, they bring up people to stand behind the band and dance and sing with the music. We didn't even know the band - Hot Chelle Rae - but they said we could go up there anyway and clap along. Which we did. Very awkwardly. But it was still so fun! We ended up being on the camera almost the whole time the song played. Here is the link: http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/wednesday-november-30-2011/1371323 David and I are on the far right. Not sure how long the link will work. You have to fast forward it all the way to the end.

Since we did the Jimmy Fallon taping, and grabbed a bite to eat in the building, we were late getting to the tree lighting. We didn't get to see it! There were so many people by the time we got out there. We were just around the corner. They had jumbo trons playing the concert. It was still fun to be there. And while we were eating in the building, we saw Judah Friedlander from 30 Rock.

Then we grabbed Shake Shack on the way back to our hotel. Um..seriously one of the best burgers ever. At least we thought so. We downed it so fast, we could only get the remnant drippings for this picture. At 9:30/10:00 at night, the line was almost out the door. During regular meal times, the line is around the building.

Day 3: We got a subway pass and ventured out farther around the city.

We went to Doughnut Plant for breakfast. It was yummy. I got a coconut cream square doughnut, and David got a cinnamon roll. They had a huge variety of crazy flavors like tres leches, peanut butter and jelly, creme brulee... But we actually enjoyed our Krisy Kremes on the way to catch the train out of town better! :)

Subway rides. Yeah, we got turned around a couple times. It was fun though.

And now for our favorite part of the trip - SCOTT'S PIZZA TOUR!!! My parents did this a couple years ago when they went, and they bought us the tickets for the tour for David's birthday present. It was soooo fun! But I think we got super lucky because normally the tours have 16-24 people, but we were the only ones that signed up. Another couple that Scott knew ended up joining us, so it was like a private tour! So I can't guarantee everyone would have the same experience as us, but we LOVED it! We got the history of pizza from Italy to New York. We sampled all sorts of different kinds of pizzas. Besides the pizza, the highlight of the tour was Scott himself. Seriously, this guy lives and breathes pizza. He is funny, entertaining and knows his stuff. I didn't know there was so much to know about pizza! I definitely have more of an appreciation for it now.

We got to go into a pizza place before it opened. He showed us their oven, how it worked, differences in ovens, their dough, what makes a good dough, etc. The first pizzeria was Keste, soooo good!

This is what the first pizzas looked like. It's called a Neapolitan pizza. No sauce, just a little cheese (reggiano, I think?), and some basil. It was gooood.

Before: Watching our Margherita pizza being made - tomatoes, basil and cheese.

After. Notice the special pizza knives.

Then we stopped at John's Pizza for some classic New York pizza. That was great, but forgot to take a picture.

I borrowed this picture from Scott's blog because I forgot to take a picture of Roma's where we tried potato and rosemary pizza, and carbonara pizza. They cut it with scissors!

Sicilian pizza - square, thicker dough, more sauce with spices, caramelized onions, cheese and bread crumbs on top.

Us and Scott! David said all boys probably wish they could grow up and get paid for eating pizza. :) If you go to New York, want to sample NY pizza, and have 3 hours to spare - GO ON THIS TOUR!

We ended up in Grand Central Station after one of our subway rides. Very surreal and grand. Beautiful architecture. We didn't take part in a flash mob though. Too bad my picture is blurry. :(

Went to the NY public library. More beautiful architecture.

Ice skating rink in Bryant Park right behind the library. We just walked around. Didn't have time to ice skate.

Went to dinner at Katz's Deli - the one from When Harry Met Sally.

They're known for their hot pastrami sandwiches. So good. I could have died. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating. But this was one-of-a-kind. We're pretty much ruined on food now. No pizza, deli sandwich or burger will ever live up after this trip.

Then we went to World Trade Center Memorial. We had to go late in the evening because you need to have reservations to go, and we didn't realize that. I'm glad we went at night though because it was beautifully lit. The names all had lights under them. I was hoping the museum would be open, but it's not opening until 2012.

And since we didn't get to see the tree the night it got lit up, we went back for our photo op. These were the trees surrounding the Christmas tree. They had lights wrapped on every single twig! I don't know how they did that.

And there is the Christmas tree!

Ok, now you're probably sick of seeing our huge self-portrait faces. :)

The tree, the cold weather, the hustle and bustle, being serenaded with Christmas songs from Michael Buble definitely put us in the holiday mood!

Can't wait to go back!

Cute park pics

2011-11-23T21:47:00.000-06:00

We went to the park today. It was the most beautiful weather! I took my camera along so I could practice taking pictures with some backlighting.

While Caleb was playing on this large swing, I decided to put Nathan in there too. They loved it! These might be some of my favorite pictures of the boys together.

Family pictures sneak peek

2011-11-17T21:24:00.000-06:00

We took our family Christmas pictures already, but I haven't created the card yet. At first I was discouraged that they didn't turn out as I hoped, but we ended up getting some cute pictures! I really want to post them all, but I don't want to ruin the fun of getting our Christmas greeting in the mail. So here is just a sneak peek at the pictures we took. I'm not going to post one of all of us, because I don't know which ones we'll use yet. :)

I love my boys!!! :)

Pinterest hits and misses

2011-11-16T14:57:00.002-06:00

If you've never heard of pinterest (pinterest.com), where have you been?? Living under a rock?? Just kidding. But it's this neat little website that you can "pin" stuff you see around on the internet so you can go back and revisit it later when you want to do that craft or recipe or whatever. It's much better than having 10 tabs open on you computer for weeks on end because you want go back to it eventually. I still do that sometimes though. :) And you also can go to pinterest.com to see what other people are "pinning." I think of it as a modern magazine. Instead of reading a decorating, cooking or craft magazine and cutting out the ideas and saving them in a folder, you can do it all in one place online. It's slightly addicting.

Anyway, I've found lots of ideas I like on there. Most of them, like decorating ones, have to wait until we sell our old house and have money. Sad, because I'm wanting to make our house feel like a home. But that will have to wait. The things I've done so far were free kids stuff with Caleb.

First, we made a Thanksgiving tree. I've been wanting to do one for awhile. But I didn't know if I wanted to do fabric, paper, felt, or make it reusable, or just add to it each year. So for now I decided to have Caleb gather sticks for our tree, and we cut out his hand shapes as the leaves. Then we wrote things we're thankful for and hung them up.

We tried making salt dough Christmas ornaments. It's just salt, flour and water. He liked mixing the dry ingredients together the most. Then when I rolled out the dough, he had fun using the cookie cutters to cut out the shapes. Then you bake them to dry them out. I wanted to do hand prints of the boys in the dough, but it didn't work. Maybe you need a different mixture with softer, more pliable dough.

Here is how they turned out. Kind of plain and rustic looking. You can paint them. Not sure how long they'll last. I read you can put a polyurethane coating on to help them last longer.

I tried to do a Christmas tree with our family's thumbprints to be Christmas lights. The indentations didn't work that great, kinda like the hand prints.

Then we tried an interactive play thing for Caleb called cloud dough. First you take a bar of Ivory soap and put it in the microwave for 1 minute. While in the microwave, it softens and puffs up like this:

Then you are supposed to add water and rip off pieces of toilet paper and add that to mixture too. Then it becomes this "dough" that you can mold and squish. Well, Caleb was not into it at all! He's never been one for play-doh or getting messy. He wouldn't even put his hands in it and try it. And this was a big step for me to even do this activity because wet toilet paper grosses me out. Gag! But the nice smell of the soap helped me not think about it. He just wanted to pull the toilet paper off the roll. What I had planned on being a 30+ minutes fun activity, turned into 5 minutes of mom playing and showing him how much fun it could be, and 5 minutes of mom cleaning up. Oh well. We tried. I think I'll stick to dry, cleaner activities.

We also tried a pinterest idea for our Christmas card pictures. I'll post those later. :)

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T22:21:00.001-05:00

Here are our cute little Halloween treats!

We had a blast at Halloween this year! It was actually our first year to participate in a traditional Halloween. The past two years we've gone to the Fall Festival at our church. The church has tons of fun activities for kids, and Caleb was too young to go trick-or-treating. But we just moved, so this year, the neighbors in our cul-de-sac invited us to a block party. Our neighbors are so nice. It's a very close-knit group of families, and they seemed to welcome us into the group. We all gathered at the edge of the cul-de-sac, had dinner, and handed out candy. Caleb LOVED looking for the kids coming and giving them candy in their bags. I know people will probably think we should be committed for child-neglect and turn us into CPS, but our kids have never had candy. Not sure Caleb even knows what it actually is. He had more fun sorting the different pieces and looking at the shiny wrappers. Oh, he'll have many years of eating candy, I'm sure. I'm just not in a rush to get him hooked yet. :) But for now, he just enjoyed being the treater.

Another comparision pic

2011-10-28T12:54:00.001-05:00

I did a side-by-side post of the boys at 10 months here. Here are they are at 1 year. So handsome. Looking through old pictures, I can't believe how much they have changed! The change is gradual month to month, but when you look back over a year or two, they look so different! I love these little guys!

Pumpkins

2011-10-26T21:31:00.000-05:00

We went to a little local pumpkin patch last weekend. I was hoping for a nice photo opp with the boys, but these were the best we got. :) Caleb was preoccupied with looking at all the people and kids dressed up. He looks kind of appalled. hehe.

He found a small one he liked.

Nathan liked the big ones.

This cute picture was taken right before Nathan fell off the bench onto his face. He wasn't really happy with us after that.

Daddy picked out a carving one.

Caleb spent most of the time sitting in the pumpkins staring at people.

I tried to put Nathan in the pumpkins again to take a picture, but he wasn't quite over the whole face-planting experience.

Overall we had a good time. :)

Nathan is ONE!

2011-10-22T23:00:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday to my sweet little Nathan! What can I say about you? My snuggly boy has a special place in my heart. I love your cuddles that you reserve just for me. It seems I'm the only one who can make you happy, but I'm ok with that. Don't grow up and not need me too fast! We always thought you were our more serious kid, but your silly side is really starting to come out. We love to play games together - like when you lay down and pretend you're sleeping, and the pop up and laugh when I say "awake!" You LOVE to eat. Perhaps my future foodie buddy? It cracks us up when you laugh just to get us to laugh with you. You like to put things in and out of containers. You like to mess up all of the things Caleb worked so hard to organize and then run away. You like to climb stairs, and are so close to walking. You aren't talking clearly, except for "hi" and "mama", but I'm pretty sure you're trying to make the sounds for "ball" and "car." Caleb adores you and wants to be there when you wake up so he can ask if you had good nappies and good dreams. Daddy loves to wrestle with you, and you love when he plays rough. You have beautiful big brown eyes that always have a twinkle. Your little dimpled grin is my favorite. And where did that blonde hair come from?

We love you sooooooo much! And can't imagine life without you. Happy birthday!!!

Video overload!

2011-10-19T22:32:00.004-05:00

Ok, I've upload some videos. Sometimes picture snapshots just don't capture all the cuteness I get to see everyday. :)

Here David is having some fun with the boys. They love to rough-house with Daddy.

They love to play in the sandbox. Nathan was playing and doing a little entertaining dance. It's a little long and slow-moving, but it's funny to me.

Caleb is so silly sometimes. I love how I can see the idea come over him - like around minute 1:33ish. And you can see he's so happy with himself. I have no idea where that white-boy dancing comes from. Feel free to steal those moves for your next dance party.

Nathan has been doing this fake laugh lately. It's like he does it to try to get us to laugh with him.

We're back!

2011-10-18T22:25:00.001-05:00

After a couple weeks off-line, we're back! So much has happened, it's probably going to take a while to get caught up. I have so many updates on each boy, our new house and other happenings - hopefully I'll be able to get to it all. I might have to break it into a few posts. I think for now I'll just download the pics from my camera and phone and do a picture post. More stories to come later...

First dinner as a family at the new house.

It was such nice weather, we got to eat outside on our patio.

First bath in the new house.

Caleb in the new play room. He could spend hours in there!

Enjoying our driveway! It's so nice and long. On this day, they were watching a lawn guy mow the front circle.

Peeking around the side of the house.

Our front porch. Nathan is holding his favorite toy - a fork. And Caleb is doing business on the phone in the background.

Nathan loves climbing the stairs.

Our front two rooms have no furniture and lots of boxes. It's just a big place for the boys to run around in now. And great for zooming cars across the open floor. It's been fun to open boxes and discover old toys.

The previous owners left their swing set. Score! Caleb LOVES it!

Caleb helping me make zucchini bread - apparently, it's very serious work.

He loved just playing in the dry ingredients with the spoons and cups.

"Take a picture of me bouncing the ball?"

We were all mesmerized when we got cable back. Two weeks with no tv or internet will do that to you. I didn't even have any videos for the boys to watch. Fortunately, we've had lots of nice weather to play outside in. When we got the tv on, we all just stared and said, "It's so pretty." hehe. But we learned we can survive just fine without it. We watched the Texas Rangers win the pennant. Woohoo! Go Rangers! We've never had a tv this low at the boys' eye level. I think we might have to get a console that keeps it up a little higher, no?

My parents' dog, Boomer, and Caleb chillin' after a day of hard work.

Caleb's room! Well, kinda. We're not really sure who gets which room yet. We got a twin bed from my parents that will be Caleb's, but right now he's still sleeping in the crib. Need to get some more boyish bedding. Hopefully our child won't have to go to counseling when he's older because of how behind we are on things like: big boy bed, getting rid of the pacifier, getting potty trained. Maybe I shouldn't be admitting these things...

Exploring the park down the street.

We live right behind an elementary school with a cool playground too.

Cute little Nathan has been sleeping in a ball with his booty up.

Our future engineer decided to pick each block up with the picker-upper-thingy and hand them to me to help build a tower.

He found his old puppy and now they are best friends. It has been packed up for a while, so he got really excited when he found it. He's been dancing around with it, playing on the swingset, he said the puppy wanted to go outside, and here they are eating together. Every time it says "hug me" Caleb give it a hug. And he's doing all the songs with it, like patty cake with the dog's hands, and pointing to all the stuff for Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes. He's calling him Buddy, and telling him he loves him, and saying to me "He's smiling!"

We've started a new rule with eating, which is "I will take one bite." This is to get Caleb to expand his food tastes. He's done so well with it! He made a fuss only the first day. Now he'll try it, and most of the time he likes it. Here he is devouring an apple. This morning he ate a whole orange!

Caleb picked out his outfit of camo shorts and a rainbow striped shirt.

While unpacking, we found our winter hats. :)

Caleb said it was his baseball hat.

Caleb lugged his chair, truck and puppy up to the top of the slide and read my magazine.

One day, Caleb looked up at the ceiling fan and said, "That's funny. Mustaches on the fan." Don't you see it??

That's it for now! I've uploaded lots of new videos to YouTube. That'll be my next post.

Sweet Spot

2011-09-28T21:52:00.003-05:00

Mmmm. We have finally reached our sweet spot. Or so I call it. I think the first 5-6 months of having a baby are the hardest. Lots of feedings, changing, crying, no sleep for you. They want to be able to do stuff, but they aren't able to yet. Nathan would get so frustrated when I laid him down, but once he could sit up on his own, he was a different person. Even better when he started crawling, and then pulling up. So here we are at 11 months. I think around 8-9 months is when the wonderfulness comes - routine. The beginning of the first year is constant change. Cutting naps, cutting feedings, introducing food, sleep training. But now it feels like we can coast for a while. Our schedule is so predictable. It helps me with planning, and helps the kids function well too. I mean, we get bumps here and there, but I can pretty much know what to expect each day and what we're capable of doing. It also gives me time to do house stuff, we can get out and run errands and play, and I even get alone time when they both take an afternoon nap. Nathan is down to two naps, and will stick with that for a while. Caleb kept two naps until he was 18 months! It'll get even better when I wean Nathan in the next couple months - more flexibility, and I can even get a day off!

I can't believe Nathan will be 1 next month!

Here are recent pics of the boys:

Caleb playing in my parents' dog's crate. Sending us a message - get me a playhouse! One day Caleb was skating around the house on a plastic squirt gun. He told me he was skate boarding. I waffle between figuring out if our child is deprived of toys or just really imaginative. :)

He was walking around the house with his hands in his pockets. When I asked him to smile for a picture, I got this cheesy grin. :)

Mr. Cutie Pants - that's what I call him. Apparently I do that a lot. Sometimes it's Mr. Stinky Pants. Sometimes it's Mr. Silly Pants. Mr. Hungry Pants. You get the idea. Caleb has started to do it too. He'll call Nathan "Mr. Grabby Grabby" when Nathan tries to take his toys. A lot of times it's Mr. Mr.

Our fast crawler.

Playing together. Caleb is slightly controlling and OCD, only letting Nathan push certain buttons. His favorite setting is the ABCs in Spanish.

Hazards of having an older brother

2011-09-01T15:00:00.002-05:00

Nathan got his first brother-inflicted shiner this week. His face collided with Caleb's car flying off the table at full speed...while it was still in Caleb's hand. So yeah, basically Caleb rammed a car into Nathan's face. He said, "I crashed it." Poor Nathan. I'm just glad he didn't damage his eye!

And yes, he's wearing a Thanksgiving bib. I could say I'm just anxious for fall weather to get here, which is true; but really, that was the only bib that was clean. :)

Haircuts

2011-08-29T21:42:00.000-05:00

I gave the boys haircuts this past weekend. Haircuts on two little kids - 30 minutes total. I don't know how I do it. hehe. But that's about as long as they'll sit there for me. And they both turned out pretty good. It was Nathan's first official haircut.

Here are some before pictures. Caleb loves smothering Nathan with hugs.

love that frowny face

Here they are after haircuts. So cute! They look so grown-up!

Home - before and after

2011-08-20T16:40:00.001-05:00

Wow. What an amazing 6 years it has been to be in our lovely little townhouse. It was our first home. Where we spent the majority of our young married years. Where we brought both babies home from the hospital. Many friends have spent time here. Much joy and many blessings. I'm sad to say goodbye.

We put a lot of love (and money) into it. I thought I would share some of the before and after pictures. I can't believe the stuff we did. We basically updated every room and made it livable! Ok, this is a lot of pictures, but I wanted to document everything we did. :)

kitchen before

kitchen after!
new floors, backsplash, counter, paint, appliances, cabinets, floor plan modification, recessed lighting, moved washing machine to utility closet, crown molding, banquet eating area

back door before

back door after!

french doors and "mud closet"

half bath before

half bath after!
paint, crown molding, floors, light fixture

living room before (the only picture we had)

living room after!

paint, floors, fire place, built-ins, window seat, recessed lighting, ceiling fan, tv mount

stairs before

stairs after!

floors, hand rail, shelf at bottom, paint

upstairs hall before

upstairs hall after!

paint, crown molding, carpet, decor (which I'm still missing a couple pictures from my frames)

other hall view before

other hall view after!

took doors off cabinets

our bedroom before

our bedroom after!

carpet, paint, ceiling fan, crown molding

other view of bedroom before

other view of bedroom after!

mounted tv to wall, created a little sitting area/baby rocking area

our bathroom before (eek! the wallpaper!)

our bathroom after!

new paint, crown molding, light fixture, shelving, granite sink, faucet, mirror, cabinet hardware

guest room/baby room before

guest room/baby room after!

paint, carpet, crown molding, chair rail, ceiling fan

other view of room before

other view of room after!

guest bath before

guest bath after!

new paint, tile, crown molding, light fixture, granite sink, faucet, mirror, cabinet hardware

back patio before

back patio after!

removed tree, new pavers

other view of patio before

other view of patio after!

Whew! That was a lot of work! But we enjoyed making our house a home. Hopefully our next place will be filled with just as many wonderful memories as we watch our kids grow up and enjoy life. Can't wait!

Look-alike?

2011-08-19T15:03:00.000-05:00

Almost every time people see the boys, they comment on how they look so much alike. I tend to notice how different they are...but I'm their mom and I see them every day. I found a picture of Caleb at the same age as Nathan is now. What do you think? Definitely look like brothers, huh? I think it's the big brown eyes and the button nose.

And as I recall, I gave Caleb his first haircut shortly after taking that picture. I'm planning on doing the same for Nathan. :)

Just because they make me smile

2011-08-18T20:46:00.000-05:00

On a side note...I think I need to cut Nathan's hair. It's getting pretty fluffy. He was mistaken for a girl yesterday.

This and that

2011-08-10T14:51:00.002-05:00

Here is a little bit of this and that of what we've been up to lately.

Caleb playing with a big floor puzzle from Grammy.

Nathan wearing his first baseball cap (a hand-me-down from Caleb). He's showing the classic Nathan smirk.

My cute boys all in their polos. Couldn't get everyone to smile. But they're all looking at the camera. I'll take what I can get.

Nathan playing with a toy at his 9-month check-up.

We had some remodeling work done on the bathroom attached to Caleb's room. Since they were working in there, I had to have him nap in my room with Nathan. I had never tried that before. I slept on the bed with him, and Nathan slept in the pack-n-play next to us. It actually worked, and both boys took a good nap. As you can see, he made himself comfortable on his half of the bed.

A friend sent us these cute towel for the boys.
Another classic Nathan smirk.

Caleb has been helping me unload the dishwasher lately. He loves to help, and he loves putting things away. Then he wanted to play with the silverware sorter.

A closer look. I love how he posed the guys climbing on the side. It's so cute to hear him talk to them and see his imagination at work.

Both boys sitting at the table doing puzzles.

Nathan is getting finally mobile! In the last month he started crawling, and is getting around pretty quickly now. He loves standing and walking with help. Now that he's getting around easier, he's encroaching on Caleb's personal space. Caleb isn't too excited about Nathan grabbing his stuff off the table that he worked so hard to put exactly where he wanted. We're working on that. It's a balance between teaching Caleb to share and be flexible, and also not letting Nathan just ruin all of Caleb's play (even if unintentional).

Nathan has started clapping and waving. He also lifts his hands over his head when I say "so big!" And it seems like he does the sign for "all done" when he's finished eating...but I'm not totally sure yet.

Caleb is in the phase of saying "whatcha doin'?" We hear it probably 200 times a day. One day he said, "Mom, whatcha doin'?" and I said back, "whatcha doin'?" And he said, "No! What are YOU doing?" and pointed his finger at me.

He's also into rhyming words. So he'll say stuff like, "plates gates" or "old cold" or "nope gope"...yeah, sometimes they are made-up words.

Speaking of made-up words, Caleb also likes to add nonsense words to the end of his sentences. So he'll say something like, "Caleb have milk please dobedobedo?" Or "Thank you, mommy jabbadabbadebe." I usually encourage his silliness and repeat back his words, and he thinks it's hilarious. We'll go back and forth talking in this silly language. He's totally got my silly sense of humor.

I'm really surprised Caleb picks up on people's names so well. We watched a show on PBS called Sid the Science Kid. And one day - after only seeing it a few times - said, "Mom, what's Gerald doin?" And then "Ella (Gabriella, I think) going down the slide." One day we were playing up at church, and Caleb pointed to a kid and said, "That's Robert." So I asked the little boy, and sure enough, his name was Robert. I had never seen him before. But a few Sundays later, I picked Caleb up from church, and Robert was in his class.

In the car the other day, Caleb reached over to Nathan and said, "Fist bump, Nathan!" and he was trying to show him how to do it.

There are tons more stories. They make me laugh about something new everyday. I have to keep a mental list so I can tell it all to David when he gets home. These boys bring us so much joy!

We're moving!

2011-07-16T11:20:00.000-05:00

Yes, that still seems like news to me! All of this happened in a matter of a few weeks. We totally were not expecting to be moving for another couple years, but God practically dropped this house into our laps. Long story, short - I was randomly looking on har.com, I put in a wishlist of criteria, up popped one house, we went and looked at it, loved it, bought it. Ta-da! Crazy, I know. But we think it is the perfect house for us. I can't really find anything I don't like about it, and that's a little scary (although some of the paint colors need to go!). But we feel a peace about moving forward with this. We just need to sell our place now! So if anyone knows of someone wanting to buy a townhome in the Galleria area, let us know! :)

I'm a little sad because we love our place so much. It's a great location and we fixed our house just the way we wanted it. Even though we could be content here for a while longer, it is beginning to feel a bit cramped. The two things I'm looking forward to the most are: 1. having my own room again! Nathan has been sleeping in our room b/c he still wakes up at night, so I don't want to put him in with Caleb yet. He's 9-months old this week, so it's about time! I sometimes feel like I'm being held hostage in our room because I can't get up early in the morning without waking him. :) And 2. having a long driveway and a three-car garage! We have a very tiny carport, and it's kind of a circus getting two kids in and out and parking the big van.

We hope all of our friends will come out and visit us even though it'll be a little farther away!! I will use bribery of fun neighborhood pools/splash pads and playgrounds, and even baked goodies if I have to.

A picture of the new place:

Quick update

2011-07-09T14:08:00.000-05:00

Oops. Haven't blogged in a while. Here is a quick update of what's going on.

Caleb just cracks me up. He's my little comedian. I hear funny things like, "Whacha makin'?" in this little voice when I'm cooking. When my dad visited he showed Caleb a YouTube video of Cookie Monster singing "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me." Then the other day when I was letting him snack on cheese and crackers, I hear him singing, "Cheese and crackers, good enough for me. Hey!" And he tries to do Cookie Monster's deep voice. The facial expressions on this kid are hilarious.

Caleb looooooves jigsaw puzzles. And I can't believe he can actually do them! He's not even 2 1/2 yet! We get them out almost every day. And at the end of the day I am the one that gets to sort them all into boxes after they all get mixed up. :)

Here Caleb is doing his Thomas the Train puzzle. And he wanted to wear his Cars bib. Classy.

Nathan is full of surprises. The other day I walked out of the room to tidy the kitchen and left him in the living room to play with toys. Not more than a couple minutes later, I walk back in the room and find Nathan STANDING up and holding onto the table!! I didn't even know he could do that! He hasn't even started crawling! Silly boy. He was very proud of himself. Every day I let him play next to his toys basket, and he'll stay there for an hour or more pulling toys out and playing with them.

The other day I decided to try a craft with Caleb during Nathan's nap. We made a caterpillar out of an egg carton, and a butterfly out of his two traced hands. Then we read his two caterpillar books. He loved it. You're supposed to use pipe cleaner for antenna, but I didn't have any, so I put in toothpicks for a temporary fix (and then took them out later when he was playing with it).

And we all dressed up like cows to get our free Chick-fil-A meals for their Cow Appreciation Day. I just taped some spots on me and the boys. David put on ears and the sign. I couldn't stop laughing at him. At least the kids are too young to be embarrassed by us. :)

New video of the boys

2011-06-15T13:08:00.000-05:00

Oh my goodness! I had so much fun making this video! I already posted it to Facebook, but I wanted to add it on our blog for me to document. I just love capturing their moments playing together. When they are in their teenage years and fighting with each other, I'll play this video for them and say, "See, you guys love each other!!"

Lately

2011-06-13T14:48:00.000-05:00

Here are some things going on lately. For some reason the pictures posted out of order. Oh well. :)

Fun with a box!

Caleb's new haircut. I accidentally used the short guard and gave him a buzz. Oops.

Playing with Grandpa's iPad.

I tried to get a picture of his rash, but it was too light to show up.

He gave me a thumbs-up.

Cool little dude.

Cool big dude.

Caleb singing "Skinny Marinky Dinky Dink."

I grew up watching The Elephant Show. Anyone else?

Double stroller rides. No more infant seat for Nathan.

Daddy sometimes eats peanut butter and jelly on toast for breakfast.

Caleb helps make it and steals bites.

My boys!

Caleb doing the sign for "donkey" from his sign language book.

Caleb started using the booster seat at the table, and Nathan uses the high chair.

Two teeth!

Sometimes we take our baskets of cars out in the front courtyard to play while Nathan is napping. Somehow Caleb ended up in one of the baskets.

Sharing a ride at the playground.

Sweetest boys ever!

2011-05-31T22:16:00.002-05:00

I have the two sweetest boys EVER! Seriously. They are sugary sweet to the core. It makes my heart melt when I see them interact with each other. I can't take credit for it. It's just how they were made. So kind, so content, so considerate, courteous, helpful, concerned, loving, so in tune with others. A lot of it describes Caleb because he is able to show it more through his words and actions, but Nathan is such a happy cutie pie too.

Nathan smiles and giggles so easily. He loves his big brother. Caleb is such a helper and loves Nathan so well. He gives him toys, he tries to make him laugh by talking baby talk, tries to soothe Nathan when he's upset.

Of course, they have their Daddy's genes. David is very tender-hearted. I'm thankful they have such a wonderful role model. I hope they grow up just like him. I know there will probably be many sibling fights in the future, but I pray that overall they become close friends for life.

I can't even fully describe in words how sweet they are with each other, but we caught this cute video that shows a bit of it. I was reading a book to them, and Caleb put his arm around Nathan's neck. He even patted his back. (Excuse my appearance, I was really sick that day. Actually, we were all sick that day. That's why Caleb is still in jammies.) :)

(Edit: Obviously they are not perfect! We have plenty of rough days. But overall, they are little sweeties.)

No 7-year itch here!

2011-05-29T10:49:00.000-05:00

Happy 7-year anniversary!!! It keeps getting better and better!

Another recipe - Strawberry Summer Cake

2011-05-27T14:39:00.002-05:00

Just another quick recipe I thought I'd share.

I don't usually make too many desserts. But I had some strawberries that weren't getting eaten, and I came across this recipe on the Smitten Kitchen website.

The strawberries were all touching before I baked it. So I probably could have squished more in there. Actually, it would have been cute to add blueberries in there and do a kind of patriotic cake for Memorial Day.

It's yummy. Like a warm strawberry shortcake. I bet it would be good with whipped cream. I might have to go get some...

Homemade Fish Sticks

2011-05-26T21:09:00.000-05:00

I made homemade fish sticks for the first time. Caleb gobbled them up! They turned out really great and were easy to make! I'm freezing some for a quick lunch idea for him.

I got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen website. I made them exactly how it said. I really don't know how healthy Panko bread crumbs are for you, but there were only like 3 ingredients on the nutritional info, verses like 20 ingredients on processed fish sticks in the frozen boxes. So at least it's a step in the right direction.

They came out nice and crunchy. I'm thinking of make fish tacos some night with them. Yum!

Cute Nathan pics

2011-05-25T21:53:00.000-05:00

Cute Nathan pics. That's it!

Sometimes Mommy needs a break

2011-05-22T21:33:00.001-05:00

If any husbands want a lesson in awesomeness, you can come ask David. He loves to spoil me. Mostly because I refuse to do things for myself. So he gets a lot of enjoyment out of pampering me...which usually come in the form of massages or food.

He and my friends' awesome husbands conspired together to give us a Mother's Day at the spa. We did it a couple weeks after Mother's Day, which was good because they said it was super crowded that weekend.

We have an amazing spa around the corner called Trellis Spa at The Houstonian. It's supposed to be the best day spa in Houston. I don't know because I haven't ever tried any others, but I would definitely recommend this place. The lady who did my facial said it's "where all the celebrities come." (said with a Russian accent)

A picture of their floating pool from their website.

You can spend the whole day there. They have tea and coffee, cookies and fruit. There is a darkened tranquility room with chaise lounges in front of a fire place. And you just hear the sound of tricking water. Ah. Sweet bliss. And there is a steam room and hot tub.

These are the best robes! So warm and plush.

We each had a body treatment, facial and massage. My body treatment was a satin sea polish. It was this warming seaweed mud on my back, and a salt scrub all over my body. It was WONDERFUL! Then I got massaged all over with hydrating lotion. I probably could have stopped with just that because it was so great. Then I got a mini facial where she massaged, steamed and hydrated my face. She even extracted blackheads!! Ewww! But it was great! Then I got an upper body massage which left me so relaxed, I was like a puddle on the ground.

After our treatments, we had lunch.

I had a nice pesto chicken and pasta meal.

The girls got a salmon salad.

Mimosas! Cheers!

We didn't want to leave! It's hard not to feel guilty about indulging in such a pampering day. But sometimes a mommy needs a break. And I have to give myself permission to enjoy it!

I'm blessed to have such wonderful friends to share a special day with.

(And hopefully they don't mind too much that I posted these pics of us without makeup in our robes, but it was too great not to share!)

Funny Caleb

2011-05-19T22:02:00.000-05:00

Caleb cracks me up.

Here are some funny things he's done/said recently:

He has had a runny nose the last few days. The other day he asked me to wipe it with a "hankerchief!" ha! I don't know where he got that one from. My guess it one of his books.

When David gives him a bath, he names off all the body parts as he is washing them. One night, David said, "Ok, let's do your other side!" And Caleb said, "Hamstring and quad!"

He really loves doing his jigsaw puzzles. I have to help him, but he does a lot of it too. We have the caterpillar one, a Thomas the Train one, and a Brown Bear one. He is very patient, and when he tries different pieces, he'll say really slowly, "maybe....here?" He was showing his Uncle Danny his bear puzzle, and Danny taught him the Spanish word for bear, "osito." So now Caleb keeps calling it "osito!"

Caleb was going outside, and asking David to come out too. David said, "Hang on, I need to check on Mommy." He wanted to see if I needed help cleaning the kitchen. So Caleb came over to me and pulled on the back of my pants and said, "All clean." hahaha! He was "checking me." Because I always ask if I can check his diaper.

When Caleb stayed with my parents, he called my sister "Susie Domine." They told him that her last name was Wolan, so he called her "Aunt Susie Wolan Domine." hehe.

His great-grandmother sent him an MP3 player preloaded with Bible songs. Here is a video of him dancing to it. He loves music.

And here is a video I made of him a month or so ago and forgot to post:

Once-a-month cooking...or my attempt

2011-05-19T10:44:00.001-05:00

Once-a-month cooking is a lofty goal. To cook enough meals to last you the whole month?? That's a lot of organization and work. But it's also a good payoff.

I decided if I had 5 or 6 meals, that would be good. It would at least give me a night or two off from cooking during the week. However, it's hard for me to find a whole day to dedicate to cooking. So what I've been doing is making double meals and freezing half...or making two easy meals in one night...or making a meal to freeze on a day we're eating leftovers. Right now in my freezer I have enchiladas, stuffed shells, pulled pork, cooked/shredded chicken for a soup or casserole, chicken stock, banana bread, pesto, meatballs, and lots of spaghetti sauce. I also want to make and freeze some homemade fish sticks for Caleb, pizza dough, rice, and some marinated steaks and chickens to grill. Hopefully I'll get to that later this week. And I don't even have a deep freezer!

Most of it is already packaged and frozen, but here is the lovely bread and broth I made.

Firsts for Nathan

2011-05-17T10:42:00.001-05:00

Nathan had two firsts this week. One is sitting up on his own! He is so happy and proud of himself. Isn't he cute?! He still bobbles some, but overall he has good balance. He also is getting his first tooth! He hasn't seemed fussy (or fussier than usual), so it doesn't seem to be bothering him too much. I'll get a picture of it when it comes in more.

And this picture of Caleb makes me laugh. He loves sports. He's really been into baseball lately. He can actually hit the ball with the bat when I toss it sometimes. And the other 90% of the time that he misses, he doesn't get frustrated, he just gets the ball and tries again. I told him I wanted to take a picture of him while he was holding his bat. He didn't like that, and started whining. But he never moved from his batting position. It had been a very emotional morning already, and I think me stopping to take a picture put him over the edge. hehe

Marco Island

2011-05-13T21:30:00.001-05:00

Warning- after finishing this post, I realized it was really long. Feel free to skim and/or just view pics.

Last week David, Nathan and I went to Marco Island, Florida to go to the Christian Brothers annual convention. I wasn't planning on going this year. But I'm so glad I did. We had a great time!

We traveled with 3 checked bags, 4 carry-ons, a car seat, a stroller and a baby. So David engineered a way for the two of us to carry all that ourselves. Nathan loved it!

The flight over there was great. It worked out perfect with Nathan's nap/eating schedule. He fell asleep at the beginning of the flight. He only slept for 30 minutes, but it was enough to refresh him, and he was happy the rest of the flight.

It's still a lot of work to wrangle a wiggly baby in like 10 inches of space. Both flights were completely full, so we didn't get to have the row to ourselves. Each time someone got stuck with us, we saw the look of despair on their faces. Lucky for them, Nathan did really well.

Most of the days Nathan slept in until 8 or 9, which was fabulous. He napped wonderfully. Our room had this big closet area, so we were able to squish the pack-n-play in there. Since we brought the noise machine, we had the freedom to watch tv and talk and not have to turn out the lights at 8:30.

They had a big Christian Brother logo on the beach for us when we arrived.

The hotel was awesome. It had like 5 or 6 restaurants on location, with two on the beach. There were two pools, a spa, and direct access to the beach. Christian Brothers treated me to a spa day. I got a stone massage that was AMAZING! Seriously, I'm picky about massages, and this was awesome. David looked after Nathan while I relaxed.

We had great food - all provided by the company. They always host a fancy awards banquet, which I was able to stay for most of. But Nathan was getting cranky, so I had to cut out early.

While David was in meetings, Nathan and I relaxed by the pool, walked around, chatted with other wives and babies, or napped. But most days David was done in the afternoon, so it felt like we had lots of time with him. We had a great time bonding one-on-one with our littlest one, but we sure missed Caleb!

Nathan eating poolside.

Nathan got soooo much attention. This was good for him. He is so attached to me. It was nice to have him passed around to lots of people and get used to it. He was the "baby fix" for all the other moms and grandmas there. I can't count how many head rubs and cheek pinches he got.

Look at those chubby thighs and knees.

He loved pool time.

The flight back home was not as smooth. I was hoping my Mother's Day gift would be a swift, easy flight. We had it timed so perfectly. We got there 2 hours early. Nathan was going to be ready for a nap right when the flight was supposed to leave. And then we found it the flight was delayed THREE hours! That meant 5 hours of waiting with a baby in an airport. It was rough. It felt like all day. We were the crazy people getting all the glares from people thinking, "Why can't you shut that kid up?" "I hope we're not on that flight." There were a few meltdowns. Nathan napped for like 30 minutes while David walked back and forth in the teensy tiny terminal we were stuck in. But finally we were able to take off. (A side note: It's nearly impossible to nurse discreetly in an airport. All seats in the airport face other seats. I suppose it's good for security. But a screaming baby draws a lot of stares. And so does a nursing mom.)

While in the air, we noticed the flight attendants hurrying up and down the aisle...then grabbing the defibrillator...then they asked for doctors or nurses to help. There was a lot of commotion at the back of the plane. Two of the girls with our group are nurses, and later told us that a man who has terminal cancer was on our flight. He took too many meds and passed out. I guess he eventually regained consciousness after getting oxygen. Apparently last time he passed out, he had a heart attack, so they were trying to prepare for that. It was kind of crazy to see all that happen. But I'm thankful everything was ok. And I'm thankful we didn't have to emergency land.

After the long day and craziness, we were planning on driving to Hunstville to get Caleb back from my parents. But instead, I got the greatest Mother's Day surprise. David and my parents planned it. They bought flowers and had Caleb walk up to me and say, "I love you, Mommy!" So sweet. Then he later told me, "Happy Mudder Day!" I missed him so much. I couldn't ask for anything better. Here is the video my Dad captured. I just wish I could have had a video of Caleb's cute face as he came up to me.

While Caleb was in Dallas, he had a great time. He went to a Rangers baseball game and saw fireworks. And my parents are pleading the fifth on how much ice cream and late bedtimes he had. They better have their fun now. It's only a matter of time before Caleb starts telling on them!

Nathan video

2011-04-27T15:24:00.014-05:00

I had so much fun creating this little video of Nathan. I hope you enjoy it too! Be sure to listen with the music. I wish I knew how to make it a larger screen on the blog. Maybe I'll figure that out later.

I have an idea for one of Caleb coming soon...

Caleb updates

2011-04-26T21:21:00.005-05:00

Mr. Smarty Pants. This is what I call Caleb a lot because he just amazes me with his learning and memory.

He knows most of the ABCs song, and he can identify most of the letters in writing.

He loves knowing the words for things. He'll ask, "What's this?" and then repeat it over to himself. And he works so hard to try to pronounce the words correctly.

He has memorized the streets to our house. So when we get close to our neighborhood, he'll start yelling from the back seat, "Right here! Right side!"

Out of the blue he'll say something we did a few weeks ago. Like when we go somewhere, and it has been a few months since being there, he'll say what we did last time. Last weekend, we pulled into David's parent's house and he said "cat sleeping" because last time when we were there he didn't see the cat because he was sleeping.

Here he is playing with the Hungry Caterpillar puzzle and naming all the food.

He is the sweeeeetest older brother. He is so nice to Nathan. He is gentle and loving. He loves to make him laugh. I hope that continues and they grow to be great friends. And you can just see in Nathan's face how much he loves his big brother.

Caleb is also an organizer. He likes to put his shoes back on the shelf when we get home. He likes putting toys away, his blankie in his crib, and closing doors. This is very helpful for momma!

Caleb is a compulsive apologizer. He apologizes all the time. If he bumps into the couch, he says, "Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I'm sorry." Sometimes he'll say "I'm sorry" if you bump into him.

While we were at David's parent's house for Easter, Caleb took a nap in a twin bed. David put the mattress on the floor. I laid with him until he fell asleep because he was a little wary. He woke up crying once, and David went in to lay with him and help him back to sleep. After his nap, he saw a picture I took of him sleeping in the "big boy bed" he was glowing and so proud of himself. I think I see a big boy bed in his future! Right now he's so content in his crib and it's nice for me to have him contained when he wakes up. But I guess the switch will be coming soon.

Some funny things he has said recently:

While getting ready to eat breakfast, he lined up his cars on the tray and said to them really seriously, "Sit right there. After oatmeal, then play." Then he said, "Motorcycle, car, Escalade. All lined up! Good job!"

He says to Nathan, "Nathan, obey Mommy."

The other day he repeated like 50 times to himself, "Don't bother Nathan." What's funny is I don't really remember saying that to him!

One day he was looking for his Lego dog and said, "Doggie, where you? Come here, sweetie."

When looking at a shower curtain liner I bought, he held it up and said very enthusiastically, "Oh, cute!"

We are so blessed to have a such a great kiddo!

First dip

2011-04-25T14:56:00.000-05:00

We took our first dip in the pool last weekend. We loaded up the boys and toys in the wagon and headed out.

The water was a bit chilly. But the baby pool wasn't bad once you got used to it. Caleb preferred to just sit on the edge. We got him to walk around a bit. And then he said, "Go home." He wasn't really excited about it.

He didn't like the cold, wet swim trunks on his legs after he got out. He wanted them off. Maybe he's more of a speedo guy. Ha!

Nathan seemed to like it though!

Nathan is 6 months old!

2011-04-23T10:29:00.001-05:00

Our little cutie is 6 months old! I can't believe he has grown so fast.

We had his 6-month check-up this week. Nathan is 15 lbs 7 oz (16th percentile), and 26.75 inches (64th percentile).

He is the cutest 6-month-old ever. I didn't think I'd be able to say that after having two kids. But I can definitely say that Caleb was the cutest 6-month-old. And now Nathan is the cutest 6-month-old.

He is smiley and happy...always has a twinkle in his eye. We're waiting for him to start crawling soon. Right now he just digs his head in the ground and kicks his legs. He loooooves his older brother. Caleb can make him laugh so easily.

Nathan tried some food for the first time this week - avocado and bananas. Neither went over that well. But hopefully he'll enjoy it soon!

Easter Garden

2011-04-20T21:31:00.000-05:00

I am not a crafty mom. I know a lot of moms that do all sorts of crafts and creative things with their kids. I'd love to be like that. Maybe I'll be like that one day.

But I saw a friend post something about doing an Easter Garden, and I thought, "Hey! I can do that!" It only required stuff found in the yard, so it seemed easy enough.

We've been reading Easter books, which Caleb loves. So I thought he'd enjoy some hands-on activity to help tell the Easter story.

So we got a shallow container and put in some dirt. Gathered a few sticks and used twine to make crosses.

Got some leaves for palm branches, flowers for the Garden,

and I used a detergent cup for the tomb.

And of course we needed a big rock to roll away.

Caleb read his Easter story book and we pointed out the story in the scene.

He knows about the soldiers, the cross and the empty tomb. He says, "Jesus is alive!!!"

Amen.

Bluebonnet pics

2011-04-04T13:56:00.000-05:00

Here are some more bluebonnet pictures of the fam!

I tried to get the boys to sit in the flowers together.

I had this cute picture in my mind of Caleb holding Nathan.

But he dropped Nathan instead.

Nathan was not happy.

Caleb was having too much fun playing...

and running...

and falling and laughing.

No photo today!

2011-04-01T14:24:00.001-05:00

APRIL FOOLS! hahaha. Ok, I guess I'm the only one that thought that was funny.

I actually am posting pictures. But I didn't take any of them today.

The photo-a-day has been wonderful for me. Kind of therapeutic - like a picture gratitude journal. Sometimes it's hard in the hustle and bustle of each day to remember the special moments. Looking back at each picture, all the craziness of the day melts away, and I just focus on the precious, heart-warming memories I have with these two boys. Nobody else gets to experience these two precious gifts the way I do. And I'm very thankful.

Here are some of my favorite out-takes that didn't make it on the blog this month. More bluebonnet pictures coming soon. :)

He is imitating me squinting through the camera.

I love those chubby shoulders!

Cute yawn.

Just checkin things out.

Love that smile, even though it is posed.

Funny view of Nathan playing with a toy.

Joy.

Love.

Peace.

“No ordinary moments exist… Every good and perfect gift comes from His very throne room.” -Ann Voskamp

Photo-a-day: day 31

2011-03-31T14:16:00.001-05:00

Ok, so on the last day of this little photo-a-day venture, I cheated. I actually took this picture yesterday. We wanted to take bluebonnet pictures this week, and yesterday was the best time to do it. It was slightly crazy. We saw a patch on the way to church on the Post Oak feeder road. It was so loud with the highway right there. Nathan was screaming because he missed his nap. Caleb was running all over. But we managed to get several good pictures. And I got to use the tripod David got me for Christmas.

Here is one for today. I'll post more bluebonnet pics later. I hope you enjoyed our photo-a-day this month! I know we did!

Photo-a-day: day 30

2011-03-30T21:36:00.000-05:00

"Climb turtle."

"I did it!!"

Photo-a-day: day 29

2011-03-29T21:51:00.000-05:00

Built-in toys!

Photo-a-day: day 28

2011-03-28T14:19:00.001-05:00

Caleb's not above playing with Nathan's baby toys. He plays with them in a different way than he used to when he was a baby. While Nathan chews on his toys, Caleb will organize them, or point out the colors, or count them. Today while he was eating his apple, he crawled into Nathan's car seat and started playing with the pull toy. :)

Photo-a-day: day 27

2011-03-27T14:16:00.000-05:00

We got a tray for Nathan's bumbo chair this weekend. He really likes it. I don't know why we never had one for Caleb. It helps keep the toys in front of him. He loves sitting up and being a part of the conversation.

Photo-a-day: day 26

2011-03-26T21:14:00.000-05:00

We had a spontaneous moment today and decided to head to the zoo at 4:00. Pretty late in the day, but since we have a family membership, we can go for just a couple hours. Caleb had a blast running around and looking at the animals. Apparently, he thought we were just getting started and was pretty heart-broken when we told him it was time to go home. He kept saying, "More animals?" I captured his shock as we said we had to leave.

So on the way out to the parking lot, we stopped by the duck pond for one more look at some animals before heading home. :)

Photo-a-day: day 25

2011-03-25T21:57:00.000-05:00

Fresh and clean after a bath. I'm glad I got a picture of him chewing his thumb. He does that a lot. :)

Photo-a-day: day 24

2011-03-24T20:54:00.000-05:00

Crib for two!

Caleb is so cute when he sees Nathan after a nap. He always repeats the same thing, "Hey, Buddy! How ya doin? Good nap? Yeah?" I guess he's heard me say that a time or two. :)

Photo-a-day: day 23

2011-03-23T14:21:00.000-05:00

Ok, so this is more than one photo. It's collage of funny Caleb faces. I think we have quite an expressive little boy!

Photo-a-day: day 22

2011-03-22T14:05:00.000-05:00

Nathan enjoys reaching for toys. Will he be crawling soon?? He is 5 months old today. Caleb was about 5 1/2 months when he started worming across the floor. Although, Nathan seems to enjoy sitting more than belly time. We'll see!

And check out my photo blog if you want to see some other recent pics I took for a friend.

Photo-a-day: day 21

2011-03-21T22:26:00.001-05:00

We had some friends come over this morning for a little impromptu get-together. These kiddos have been playing together for the last 2+ years. Since they were all in one place, we attempted a picture. We don't get to play together as much these days because of all the crazy naps, feeding, and school schedules. But it sure is fun when we do!

Photo-a-day: day 20

2011-03-20T21:48:00.000-05:00

This is our normal routine after church. Since we park right next to the feeder road of the highway, Caleb loves to run out to watch all the cars and trucks go by. Today he plopped down on the sidewalk for a good view. Don't worry. We're right next to him, making sure he doesn't run into traffic. :)

Photo-a-day: day 19

2011-03-19T20:05:00.000-05:00

Just a lazy day picture of Nathan on our bed today. We actually had a photo shoot this afternoon for some Christian Brothers Automotive marketing ads. So you might see Caleb and Nathan in advertising for David's company soon! If I get copies of the pictures, I'll post them here later.

Photo-a-day: day 18

2011-03-18T13:56:00.001-05:00

I got both boys in the swings together for the first time! There were a lot of kids playing around us, so I wasn't able to get them to look at the camera. But they seemed to have fun!

Photo-a-day: day 17

2011-03-17T21:29:00.000-05:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! The boys inherited their Irish luck from me. Even though we failed to wear green today, Caleb and I drew some shamrocks and a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. That is the extent of our knowledge of all things Irish. hehe.

Photo-a-day: day 16

2011-03-16T14:30:00.000-05:00

This is a great example of what I get to see every time I'm in the car. Don't worry, I was not taking pictures while driving! But I do sometimes wonder if I'm a hazard on the road, because it's so hard not to keep looking back at those cute faces (maybe you can see Nathan's tiny face in the mirror). While driving around, we play games, look for cars out the window, sings songs, have silly conversations, and laugh. We have so many fun moments in the car, and I cherish all of them!

Photo-a-day: day 15

2011-03-15T14:03:00.000-05:00

I know of a way to make laundry more fun!

Photo-a-day: day 14

2011-03-14T14:51:00.000-05:00

Today we watched a storm roll in. While Nathan was napping, Caleb and I watched for lightning and listened for thunder. He enjoyed waiting for it, and then saying "sunder!" when he heard it. I guess when we can't go out and play, we might as well entertain ourselves with the weather!

Photo-a-day: day 13

2011-03-13T17:07:00.000-05:00

Reading the Sunday comics!

Photo-a-day: day 12

2011-03-12T14:15:00.000-06:00

This is exactly the picture I intended on taking today. Close-up shot of Nathan's face. Sparkling eyes. Big smile. Only...I didn't take it. :) At the park, I had Nathan in the infant carrier, and I handed David the camera to take a picture for me. After I saw it and knew it was what I wanted, I didn't even bother to try to get one on my own! So, thanks to David for this great pic!

Photo-a-day: day 11

2011-03-11T14:14:00.001-06:00

Silly me hasn't remembered to charge my camera battery! With this photo-a-day, I used it up a lot faster than usual. Thankfully, I was able to capture a picture at the park before my camera battery died.

I'm realizing how big and grown-up Caleb is getting. I don't need to help him on the playground anymore. He even went up this big vertical step by himself. It's hard to describe, but he had to hold onto a bar to hoist himself up. He asked me to come help him, but I couldn't get to it because I would've had to crawl through a tunnel, and I had Nathan in the infant carrier. So I told him how to do it, and he did it! Then he went down the big twirly slide!

Here are a couple funny things Caleb has said recently:

While dragging his blankie, "Come on blankie!" Then shaking it, "Nice to meet you!"

When he was running around, David asked, "Are you running in a circle?" Caleb said, "No, oval!" Then he said, "Pentagon!" ha!

Photo-a-day: day 10

2011-03-10T15:15:00.000-06:00

Yay! We took our first wagon ride today with both boys! I put the bumbo seat in it so Nathan could sit up and enjoy the ride. It might not be the intended use for the bumbo, but it worked for us! Both boys loved it! Here there are watching the lawn service blow the leaves and mow the grass. Riveting.

Photo-a-day: day 9

2011-03-09T13:37:00.001-06:00

We went to story time at the library this morning. We usually go to the one for toddlers, but I got the time wrong today and we ended up at the one for babies. But it was fun to include Nathan in the rhymes and bouncing. Caleb still enjoyed it. He loves listening to the teacher and the songs. They even had a parachute today! We sat around in a circle and pulled it up in the air. He wasn't brave enough to go under it though. Maybe next time!

For some reason he loves to take his backpack to story time, even though he doesn't have anything in it. But he doesn't like to wear it - he insists on carrying it. But today he wanted to put it on his back for the first time!

On a different note - remember how I said Caleb thought I looked like the model in the grocery store? Ha! Well, the past few times we've read his Bert and Ernie book, he's said that this particular muppet is me. Tell me if you see the resemblance. Maybe if I had lavender skin and a blue nose? Unfortunately, I think it's a male muppet. But since I usually wear my hair back in a ponytail, I'll let Caleb slide on that one.

Photo-a-day: day 8

2011-03-08T21:23:00.002-06:00

It's been pretty dreary out, so I haven't been getting much light in the house. And I don't have any flash equipment, so I ended up with a pretty grainy picture. Perhaps there is something I'm doing wrong or a way to get around it. But that's the best I can do for now! :)

Mr. Nathan is starting to reach for those toes! He's showing interest in lots of things. It's so cute when he sees something and tries his hardest to grab it.

Photo-a-day: day 7

2011-03-07T22:22:00.001-06:00

Not much went right today. Just one of those days. So getting a picture wasn't really a priority. With all the things that were crazy, two things made me smile - the boys taking a 3-hour nap at the exact same time! and Caleb thinking the model on a poster in the grocery store looked like me. I use the phrase "looked like me" loosely because I had no shower, no make-up, glasses and sweats on. So, not much resemblance to the model in my current state. But it made me smile that Caleb thought it looked like me on a normal day.

I've been waking the boys up from their naps lately. Nathan will sleep forever in the day if I let him, and I've noticed if Caleb sleeps too long or too late in the day, his night sleep gets disrupted. Here, Caleb is still not quite fully awake.

We're all ready for Daddy to get back from traveling! Hurry home!

Photo-a-day: day 6

2011-03-06T13:47:00.001-06:00

It feels impossible to get a good picture of Caleb these days because he is constantly moving! By "good", I mean in focus, nice lighting and thoughtfully composed. If I get a good picture like that, it's just luck. But if "good picture" means catching Caleb being himself, I can do that. I guess those pictures make for the best memories anyway.

Here I think he's singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and doing the hand motions. :) I gave him a hair cut this afternoon.

Photo-a-day: day 5

2011-03-05T15:13:00.000-06:00

Don't you just want to slap some butter on those rolls and take a big bite??

Maybe it's just me...

And because I thought this one was cute too...

Photo-a-day: day 4 (and some funny Caleb stories)

2011-03-04T13:37:00.001-06:00

This little guy cracks me up! It's something new every day. Sometimes I have to write things down so I can remember to tell David all of the funny stories when he gets home.

Caleb and I were playing on the patio this afternoon. Everything ends up outside: books, cars, etc. So he sat down and read a book, in a very interesting way.

Here are some of the latest funny Caleb stories:

He can sing most of the words of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (which sounds like Crinkle Crinkle), and he has started doing the hand motions he learned at library story time.

He saw the capital letter "i" on a book and said "bone!" because of course it looks like a bone!

He LOVES all of his Sesame Street books, especially Bert and Ernie. He'll get down on the floor and read them to Nathan. He also loves his "Snuffy has the Sniffles" book - Snuffleupagus is "nuff-a-nuff-us," said with lots of gusto.

He says to Nathan, "Don't cry. Be happy!"

And the funniest one this morning was when he was having a discussion/argument with himself about reading a book.
"Read it?" picking up the book
"Noooo!" putting it down
"Read it?"
"Noooo!"
"Read it?"
"Noooo! Say please."
"Please?"
"K"
Then he started reading it. :)

Photo-a-day: day 3

2011-03-03T14:19:00.001-06:00

Lately we've all been getting up at the same time in the morning. So while I'm getting ready, I've been plopping the boys on our bed together. They seem to like it. Shame on me for not having Caleb in focus, but Nathan's expression is just too cute! He sure looks up to his big brother! Caleb brought both of his blankies in our room, and shared one of them (not his favorite) with Nathan, and said "Nathan's blankie." Sweet brothers! I love watching them interact more together.

Photo-a-day: day 2

2011-03-02T13:56:00.000-06:00

Always looking up!

Photo-a-day: day 1

2011-03-01T14:09:00.000-06:00

I love photography. I love practicing with my camera and trying to improve. I even have a little photo blog.

A few of the professional photography blogs that I stalk did a photo-a-day of their own kids for the month of January. Well, I had too much going on the last couple months, but I thought it would be fun to try it myself for the month of March. It might help me improve a little, and it'll give me a picture journal of some daily moments with these two little boys.

It's going to take a lot of discipline and effort for me to actually have my camera out, take a good picture, edit and post it every day. But I'm willing to try! Don't keep me too accountable though!

Here is day 1:

Teething happens

Crib comforts

Quiet play

Oh, baby Nathan, please don't grow up so fast!

2011-02-24T21:40:00.001-06:00

After seeing how fast Caleb became a two-year-old, I'm already mourning the fact that Nathan is growing so quickly. As much as I love each stage they go through, I'm realizing there are only so many more times he is going to hold my hand when I nurse him...only a handful left of big, sloppy, open-mouthed kisses...just a few more moments of him staring in wonder at my face as if it is the most lovely thing he has ever seen.

I know that pretty soon he'll be more interested in cars and trucks, running and playing. I LOVE the older playful stages too, but this momma is sad my baby is slipping away. Maybe it is because my attention is divided and I don't get to soak in every second I have with Nathan. So I'm being sentimental. And I made a little video of my baby Nathan.

It is totally amateur (which I hope to get better) and sappy, but I'm desperate to record these moments that I feel are passing too swiftly. One day I'll be able to go back and watch, remember when, and probably bawl my eyes out. I love my baby!

Happy Birthday my Sweetpea!

2011-02-22T14:02:00.000-06:00

Today is Lisa's birthday and I thought I'd make a rare appearance on the blog to celebrate her as a woman, a girlfriend, a wife, and a mother.

My wife was born in Cleveland, Ohio and moved to Flower Mound, TX (DFW) right before High School.

I met her in college at Texas A&M while serving at Grace Bible Church.

My life was changed forever. I couldn't imagine my life without her. She is so wondeful and I tell her quite often that I'd be miserable if I didn't have her. She cares for me in every way and asks nothing in return. She is the epitome of selflessness.

Then when the boys came along, her sweetness just got sweeter. I've never seen anyone pour themselves out for three dirty boys with such a wonderful attitude and a healthy vision of her purpose.

My dear, my sweetpea. I love you! Happy Birthday and thank you - THANK YOU - for all you've done for us and continue to do each day. We would all have a VERY poor quality of life without you and I pray that we have MANY more years together, 'til we grow old and croak.

LOVE!

From my graduation in 2004

Caleb is TWO!!!

2011-02-07T09:11:00.000-06:00

Wow! What a year! It feels like it has gone by so fast. 12-24 months has got to be the most fun age. Caleb has grown from a baby into this amazing little person with a hilarious personality, amazing vocabulary, and beautiful heart. We love him to pieces. I can't wait to see what this next year holds. I'm bracing myself for the terrible twos - but whatever happens, I'm going to try to cherish every day I get with this wonderful blessing.

giving him a birthday kiss this morning:

one year ago:

two years ago:

"Making the decision to have a child is momentous.

It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."

- Elizabeth Stone

Just for fun

2011-02-06T21:51:00.000-06:00

Just thought I'd share the cuteness that I get to see every day:

Picture post

2011-01-21T23:04:00.001-06:00

When getting the baby activity mat out of storage for Nathan,

Caleb decided it would make a fun tent.

While I was putting Christmas stuff away in the closet,

Caleb had fun exploring.

Caught reading books

While David was out of town traveling, Caleb and I had a picnic
dinner on the kitchen floor. We shared a four-course meal of sweet
potatoes, chicken, noodles and apple slices.

Reading to his animal buddies

"Want a closer look, Mr. Bear?"

I tried to capture Nathan's sad face. He has the most pathetic pouty lip.

This is about halfway there. He needs to scrunch his eyes for the full effect.

Caleb's Escalade. Must have in hand at all times.

At the zoo. "Daddy, this doesn't feel good on my boy parts."

"Jaguar" and "Escalade"?

2011-01-21T22:59:00.000-06:00

Are these words a less-than-two-year-old should be saying? If your kid is obsessed with cars like mine is, you hear it a lot. Although, Escalade sounds more like "eh-cade." And he just started saying "station wagon" today.

Poop in the sink

2011-01-18T21:35:00.000-06:00

Before

After

(blocked out the grossness so you don't gag)

Oh, the joys of parenting.

I need to end with a cute baby in a towel picture:

Recent stuff

2011-01-11T14:16:00.001-06:00

Some words I've heard coming out of Caleb's mouth lately - "Yes, mommy." "Obey." "No throwing cars." I guess you can figure out what stage we are going through! Most of the time I'll ask him to repeat these phrases, but sometimes I'll overhear him talking to himself and saying them. hehe. I feel like we're able to have conversations now. He talks so much. It's a new word or phrase every day. The other day he put his hand on his head and said, "Oh, gosh!" I guess I say that a lot?

Overall, he is such a good, compliant kid. We're so blessed. Yes, he is pushing boundaries occasionally, but he is just trying to figure out how things work in his little world. And I'm realizing how I react to it makes a world of difference. He plays so nicely, loves reading, behaves really well in public, does well at naps and dinner time. He sat through our Christmas Eve service like an angel - we were so proud of him.

Nathan is getting much more alert and strong. We must have smiley babies because he was smiling before his 2-month birthday! He rolled over several times one day, but hasn't done it since. I love his sweet personality. He seems to be a good napper. I've been so blessed that most days the boys will take an afternoon nap around the same time. Even if it is only 30 minutes of overlapping, it is great.

Most of the time things go smoothly during the day. Caleb has gotten good about letting me go upstairs without him when I have to put Nathan down for a nap. He holds up his little pointer finger and says, "be back", which means "I'll be right back." I really thought I'd have to rely on TV for Caleb while I was nursing Nathan, but that hasn't been the case. Caleb will usually play well by himself, or he'll bring a book up next to me and read. So I'm very thankful for that. I usually do fine all day, until I hit a point of exhaustion around 5:00 as I'm juggling both boys and getting dinner ready. I'm usually counting down the minutes until David gets home so we can tag-team!

Boys hangin' out together.

Caleb loves reading in his chair.

Precious little Nathan

bubbles :)

Two little heads

Caleb is reading a sign language book I had when I was little. He is doing
the sign for "ball." He has picked up a lot of signs from us reading it together.

I love Nathan's face here!

I told Caleb to show the book to Nathan, and he really showed him!
I had to watch closely to make sure Nathan didn't get clobbered.

Family portraits

2011-01-08T22:21:00.000-06:00

This year we did family portraits for both families. They turned out great! I know the trend these days is to hire a photographer and do more photojournalism/action/catch-a-special-moment shots - something I love and am working at learning. But there is something I still like about getting a family group together and doing a sit-everyone-down-and-smile-in-front-of-a-plain-background picture. (Wow, I'm using a lot of hyphens.)

Of course I won't go super old-school with the double exposure portraits like in the living room of Napoleon Dynamite:

Although, we did make a few jokes about posing with something billowy...

Ok, here are our faves. I fully expect to get a call from Baby Gap and Gap Kids in search of their next models. hehe.

My fam

David's family

Christmas celebrations

2011-01-06T21:23:00.001-06:00

We had a fun time celebrating Christmas - first with the David's family on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, then with my family in Dallas the week after. We sang happy birthday to Jesus and had a cake. Caleb's eyes lit up in wonder, and ordered us to sing it several more times - a preview, I'm sure, of his birthday coming up next month.

Here are some fun pics:

Caleb enjoyed opening gifts - he got lots of books.

Daddy helped open the big gift, and Caleb watched in anticipation.

Sitting with Grammy. Yes, you see toilet paper

on the side - an essential gift given each year. :)

Reading new books with Aunt Sarah.

The boys had matching jammies, but Nathan got a reindeer

outfit that was too cute not to put on right away. Ha!

On his new 4wheeler from Uncle Danny.

He was timid to ride it at first, but now loves it.

More opening presents in Dallas.

More books!

Look who got an iPad!

No, Dad, I don't think that is how you use it...

Nana

I think David enjoyed some of Caleb's presents more than Caleb.

Aunt Susie got a new bouncy ball from us! (Long story...)

Aunt Susie reading with her boys.

Nathan was tired from all the fun.

Nightly reading routine when Nana puts Caleb to bed.

Love that smiley face!

We had great Christmas celebrations with both families. Now I'm just getting caught up on laundry, sorting toys, and taking down decorations. :)

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

2010-12-25T10:00:00.001-06:00

We are so thankful for all of our blessings during 2010. What a year! Growing our family has continued to fill my heart with joy. I can't imagine life without these precious boys. And I'm so thankful for David and his constant love and support. He is such a wonderful dad and husband!

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas celebrating Jesus' birth! We are looking forward to all this new year holds.

Life before and after kids

2010-12-10T14:05:00.001-06:00

Before having kids, I could just grab my keys and head out the door if I needed something from the store. Now things are a little different. My mental checklist goes a little something like this:

Are both kids fed and changed? (If not, this will add 10-30 minutes to our leave time)
Evaluate if our outing will have us back in time for naps and feedings
Get shoes (and possibly jacket) on kid #1
Put kid #2 in car carrier
Make sure I have pacifier for kid #2
Grab a snack and/or toy for kid #1 to keep him busy in the store, but don't let him see me grab it or he will want it now.
Walk out to the car and put kid #2 in car seat. (Kid #1 will probably be following and end up playing on the back patio or try running down the alley.)
Wrangle kid #1 and put him in car seat. He'll probably start requesting stuff he sees on the car floor - cars, ball, book. Figure out what he's asking for and make sure he's settled in.
Go back to house, grab purse and keys, lock the door.
Get in car and head to store!

I think this is one of the causes of "mommy brain". What was once a simple task, now involves 10+ more steps, so I'm lucky if I remember anything else. Which is why I always have a fear of losing my keys or locking them in the car. I'm always hustling and distracted. That would be a nightmare! - to be done grocery shopping with a full cart, two kids who are ready for lunch and naps, and no way to get home. So I obsessively check to make sure I have them.

So things definitely take longer these days, but I love this phase of life. I wouldn't trade being a mom to these kids for anything. It's the only job in the world I would do for free! Unless someone was hiring a massage tester and had me to go around to all of the spas and try them out...I would do that for free. hehe.

Picture time!

Finally - family pics

2010-12-06T12:51:00.002-06:00

It's taken awhile to get some pictures of the four of us. Our friends Jeremy and Heather came up with a great idea for us to snap some photos of each others families. Somehow we were able to get everyone fed, cleaned, wearing nice clothes and out the door in a timely manner to meet them at a park. Whew. That doesn't always happen. And we got the most perfect December weekend. Sunny and cool. Here are our faves:

Love love love that smile!

This is what happened most of the time - us chasing after Caleb.

Ah, wrangled for a nice family pic.

The picture we chose for our Christmas card is yet to be revealed. Coming soon... :)

More Caleb things that make me laugh and smile

2010-11-21T09:52:00.001-06:00

The other morning, I was changing Caleb and he peed just a bit when I took his diaper off. He was just reading a book and not paying attention. I yelled, "Caleb!" because I was surprised - he hasn't peed when changing a diaper since he was a newborn. Well, after he realized what happened, he grunted and continued to force the rest of the pee out while laughing. I was screaming and laughing, while trying to grab whatever clothes I could to soak it up and keep it from spraying everywhere. It was a lot of pee.

When Caleb counts he always says, "twoeee". It must be a combo of two and three. :)

Caleb likes to pretend the word for "knee" is "elbow." He'll point to his knee and say "elbow" over and over again just to make me laugh.

Caleb called himself "Tadub" the other day. He doesn't say his own name very often, but he has just started so say it more. When he says Nathan's name it sounds like, "Nay-n."

Whenever I ask him to say "sorry", he just turns my head and kisses my cheek. That is one way to do it!

He sometimes pretends he hurt himself. It usually happens after he wobbles or gets frustrated with something. He'll come over and point to his head or arm and want me to kiss it and give him a hug.

He says, "upchee" for "upstairs." What he is really saying is "up the tree" from the book Go Dogs Go. There is a part where all the dogs climb up the ladder on the tree and it says, "up the tree, up the tree."

He is amazing me with his vocabulary. The other day he reached for my pants and said, "pocket" and tried to put his cars in my pocket. I was like, "what?? when did you pick up that word??"

Last week as we were driving home from church, David and I were talking and not really paying attention to Caleb babbling in the back seat. When I tuned in, I heard him saying, "Jesus. Bible." over and over. So cute! I don't know if they talked about that in his nursery class, but I was surprised that was on his mind. Whenever he reads his Bible story books he says, "Jesus!" with a little lisp and such gusto. It sounds like he is a southern preacher. :)

That isn't gel in his hair. That is yogurt from breakfast that he

smothered all over and I wasn't able to get out.

Always laughing and trying to make us laugh.

Playing next to his little bro.

Reading MotorTrend in the car.

First ride in a car grocery cart. I never use these, but

he went shopping with Daddy this time.

Things that make me laugh...

2010-11-02T14:11:00.000-05:00

Here are some funny things Caleb has done that made me laugh. I have to write them down before I forget.

He came over and saw me nursing Nathan and said, "Baby, mouth" and then did this open-mouth sucking motion with his jaw like a fish. I cracked up. And of course that prompted him to laugh and keep doing it.

After he ate his eggs for breakfast, I gave him some oatmeal. He held out his hands and said, "prayers." So we prayed again and he said, "amen!" I guess he likes to give thanks for each course of the meal. hehe.

When I pulled the laundry out of the dryer, it was really warm. Caleb said, "hot!" and started to blow on the clothes. :)

That crazy kid is saying something new every day - I can't keep track of all his words anymore!

Picture post

2010-10-29T22:37:00.000-05:00

I tried to take a few pictures of Nathan this afternoon, hoping to get some cute newborn sleepy smiles. I love the faces babies make when they are sleeping. But he was wide awake. Maybe I'll try again later. But for now, here is my cutie:

Nathan's birth story

2010-10-29T22:08:00.000-05:00

Man, it's going to be hard to write all the details of Nathan's birth story. One, because there were so many cool things that took place to make it a miraculous experience. And two, because I'm short on time and sleep these days. But we'll see what I can do.

If birth stories make you queasy or aren't your thing, feel free to skip this post! And it's really long. :) It's mostly for me to remember everything.

First, I have to say that every detail of the day was completely a blessing from God. He took care of us in so many ways, I probably can't even say it all. There were so many things that could have gone wrong, I know I only accomplished another wonderful natural childbirth under His provision and grace.

Second, natural childbirth is kind of like riding a roller coaster. You're kind of wondering when you're going up the hill, "Why did I decide to do this?" But there is no turning back and you just have to prepare and focus. Then when it's all over, you're like, "Wow! That was amazing! I would totally do that again." (Just not any time soon.)
---------------------------------------

I woke up Thursday, October 21 feeling kind of tired and grumpy. Mostly because Caleb was sick and had me up at 5:00 a.m., and I could tell my body didn't feel the same. I had the thought, "Oh great, I'm going to go into labor today on little sleep with a sick child." I didn't say anything to David or family though just in case it didn't happen. From 9-10 in the morning I had four regular contractions every 15 minutes that kind of got my attention. Then I thought, "If this baby doesn't come today, it's probably going to be soon!" I already had a premonition that Nathan would come around a full moon. I didn't know I would get the exact day though!

As the day went on, it got worse. Caleb could barely breathe because his colds sometimes induce asthma. So I had to give him breathing treatments. He was so bad he couldn't take a nap, which meant no rest for me. When I realized that I could be having a baby soon, and I was completely worn out physically and emotionally, I texted David to see if he could come home from work. Thankfully he did. He got home around 2:00.

He took Caleb out and ran some errands to give me a chance to rest. Well, I didn't exactly rest. I cleaned the house. Then took a shower. Then rested a little bit. But right as I laid in bed, the contractions were noticeable and consistent - about every 15 minutes again. I realized then that today was going to be the day Nathan was coming!

David came home and we gave Caleb another breathing treatment and a steroid. Thankfully those helped and his breathing got much better. The timeline from there is kind of a blur, but we ate, put Caleb to bed, packed our bags, and called our family.

Around 10:30ish I tried to lay down and sleep. I knew the contractions needed to be about a minute long and 5 minutes apart before going to the hospital. They were getting worse. I couldn't lay down when a contraction came, so I definitely wasn't going to sleep. David came to bed, and I asked him to start timing my contractions. They were 3-5 minutes apart and 45-60 seconds each!! So at 11:30 p.m., we tried to call our midwife to see if we could make our way to the hospital. She was paged, but never called us back. We started getting a little worried. After another failed page, and an hour later, they paged another midwife who called us back at 12:30 a.m. and said we should definitely go to the hospital. We found out her pager accidentally turned off!

We were also concerned about what to do with our sleeping Caleb. We were going to call David's brother, but he was 30 minutes away, and my parents were about 45 minutes away in their drive down from Dallas. We decided to wait for them to get here. So at about 1:00 in the morning, they arrived, and we left for the hospital.

One great thing about going into labor at 1:00 a.m. is there isn't any traffic on the road!

I was admitted to a hospital room at 1:30 and hooked up to all the monitors. And all of a sudden it seemed like my contractions weren't as bad! I started feeling a little discouraged. Then the midwife checked me and said I was only 3-4 centimeters dilated! And I was at a + 2 station, which means the baby's head was still high. She said if I didn't need to get an antibiotic and I lived down the street, she would probably send me home. She said she would turn the lights off and let me rest a few hours, and hopefully I would make some progress.

Well, not more than a few minutes later, I got a strong contraction and felt a big pop - then liquid come out. I know, kinda gross. Sorry. I said, "Um, I think my water broke." They checked, and sure enough it did. Then the contractions started coming really strong, really fast.

I'll spare you all the details, but I'll just say it was hard. I had the urge to push, and my midwife said to just let my body do what it needed to. David helped me with my breathing, and was so comforting. Debbie, my midwife, told me I better turn around and get in a good position because she thought the baby would be here any minute. I really didn't believe her. Because with Caleb I pushed for 2 hours!!! She checked me, and I was fully dilated, and she said I was ready to have this baby with probably the next two contractions.

And with a few pushes, Nathan arrived into the world! Oct 22 - 3:23 a.m. - 7 lbs 4 oz - 18 1/4 inches.

So basically, I was in the hospital for less than 2 hours, and went from 3 to 10 centimeters and had a baby in less than 45 minutes. Crazy whirlwind.

When they put Nathan on my chest, he practically fell asleep. He cried a bit, but overall was so chill. He is so precious, and we were in love at first sight.

We are thankful for so many things. That I went to the hospital at the perfect time, that my parents arrived in town at the perfect time, that Caleb started feeling better and slept soundly as we left him, that my labor was quick and relatively easy (I said relatively), that it progressed smoothly, that my water didn't break before getting to the hospital (or I would have had a baby in the car!), that I wasn't sent home, that there were no complications, I could go on and on.

Anyway, we are happily adjusting to life at home. I love love love my boys. Here are some pictures:

Us with my midwife and nurse.

The grandmothers, and Caleb meeting Nathan.

First family pic.

First week at home - getting more alert.

First family-of-four outing

2010-10-28T14:16:00.000-05:00

I'll be posting an update of Nathan's birth story and pictures soon (who knows when I'll find the time...) - but before I have a chance to sit down and think about that, I thought I'd do a quick post of our first outing as a family of four. We took a drive to a nearby park. Caleb needed to get out an play, and Nathan needed some sun to try to get rid of his jaundice.

Also, today David went into work and I took the boys on our first double stroller walk. It was the perfect fall day. Caleb loved lounging in the front, and I got to look at Nathan while he slept. This stroller is much heavier than the single one, so I'm definitely going to get my exercise when we go on walks. I'm pretty sure I got a full body workout today from carrying around a newborn in one arm, while chasing a toddler around, lifting him up on the play equipment, and pushing him in the swing. I forgot to take my camera to the park, but snapped these couple pics when we got home. :) Oh, and I really like this stroller so far. It's cool because it can hold a car seat, and eventually they can both sit in it. Or I can take the back seat out and Caleb can stand on the back or sit on a little bench seat.

Pumpkin Patch - a year later

2010-10-17T14:29:00.000-05:00

We visited a neighborhood pumpkin patch today. It was quite a different experience than from last year. Caleb seemed so little back then (about 8 months) and he didn't like sitting in the pumpkins. This year he was running all around and throwing pumpkins (which we had to tell him were different than balls and you shouldn't throw them).

Here are some picture comparisons from this year and last year:

Not so happy about posing in the pumpkins last year.

Much more easy-going about posing for us this year.

-------------------------------------

Kind of freaked out about putting his head through the holes last year.

Much more fun this year!

------------------------------------

Last year, not as fun.

This year we got a smile!

------------------------------------

Last year Daddy had to pick out Caleb's pumpkin for him.

This year he picked one out all by himself!

--------------------------------------

Last year with Mom.

This year with Mom.

-------------------------------------

Last year with Dad.

This year with Dad.

Random

2010-10-17T13:01:00.000-05:00

Here are just some random happenings and pictures.

Caleb reading Daddy's MotorTrend.

Caleb was helping Daddy in the garage and got stuck.

We got out the Baby Bjorn for Nathan and decided to try it out on Caleb again. He still fits!

Eating black bean soup. Yummy, but quite messy.

I have a "geckle"

2010-09-29T14:12:00.000-05:00

Caleb pointed to a zit on my face yesterday and said, "geckle" - which means freckle. I guess it was nice of him to avoid the fact that it was really a zit, but it was still unfortunate that he saw it and was preoccupied with continually pointing it out. I had to laugh though. Being a mom is humbling. :)

Also, here is my most recent belly shot at 34 weeks:

Getting big! I'm just over 35 weeks now. Caleb came at 38 weeks. Yikes! I looked at the calendar and there is a full moon on October 22 - I'll be 38 1/2 weeks then. Caleb came around a full moon too. They say that women really do go into labor more around full moons. So we'll see what happens!